A bilingual poem inspired by Nie Wieder Krieg (Never Again War) by Karl Wiener Nie Wieder Krieg (c. 1928) UKRAINE wooden crosses over gravesbeginning to look like daggerssunk with a squelch into the earthto quieten the undeadbut undead and quivering they are notthey are truly deadempire masters of the eastempire […]
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In the dark times
“In the dark timesWill there also be singing?Yes, there will also be singing.About the dark times”—Bertolt BrechtThe night is darkI see light across the skyIt is not a light of hopeIt is not the sign of dawnThe heat it radiates does not give warmthIt scorches you to ashesThe place I […]
A valuable addition to O’Casey commentary
■ Paul O’Brien, Seán O’Casey: Political Activist and Writer, Cork University Press, 2023, €39. Paul O’Brien has published a political biography of Seán O’Casey, looking at the dramatist from a broadly left-wing viewpoint. The book is accessibly written and sheds light on details of working-class Dublin and international history. O’Brien’s […]
Hans Holbein the Younger
The painter of Renaissance humanism Hans Holbein the Younger, born in Augsburg in the winter of 1497/98, was one of the foremost German painters of Renaissance humanism. Augsburg was the seat of the Fugger family, trading magnates and bankers. Jakob Fugger “the Rich,” elevated to the nobility of the Holy […]
“Socialism Betrayed” revisited
It is nearly twenty years since the publication of Socialism Betrayed by Keeran and Kenny.¹ They offered an interpretation of the USSR’s collapse that was influential within the communist movement and the CPI. The book highlighted the disintegration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as derived from the […]
International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties
The Communist Party of Ireland participated in the 23rd International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, hosted by the Communist Party of Türkiye, which took place in İzmir from 19 to 22 October. 121 representatives of 68 parties from 54 countries took part, while another seven parties, which could not […]
Treating people like fools
After a number of years off the radar, out of vogue, the bogeyman of online piracy is back on billboards and your television screens. Launched in October, BeStreamWise is the latest awareness campaign to deter people from using illegal internet protocol television (IPTV), also known as dodgy boxes, firesticks, and […]
The degrowth debate
Degrowth has arguably become the most common idea in the coverage of post-capitalist visions of the world in tackling climate change. Monthly Review dedicated an issue to degrowth, while Kohei Saito’s Degrowth Manifesto had record sales in Japan. Inevitably, degrowth is interpreted in different ways in the public conversations. In […]
The politics of the Irish establishment
No historical Irish political figure sums up the politics of the Irish establishment today as much as John Redmond. The class and political interests Redmond embodied during his life have strengthened over recent decades and now appear to dominate most elements of the state, media, and political parties. Politics is […]
Palestine
Unending violence and repression October 2023 will go as one of the bloodiest periods in recent history, in the long struggle of the Palestinian people to end Israeli occupation and to achieve an independent state. The current bloody onslaught against the Palestinian people, while sparked by the attacks of the […]
Statement in Solidarity with LGBTQ+ Community
The rights of LGBTQI people are under attack, we have seen regressive moves across Europe the latest being Italy’s right-wing government ordering state agencies to cease registration of children born to same-sex couples and the retroactive cancellation and re-issuance of birth certificates of lesbian couples’ children, with only the gestational […]
Senryu
Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita and Gabriel Rosenstock well, says the orang-utan at least I’m not a wage slave bhuel, arsa an t-órang-útan ní sclábhaí pá mé ar aon nós
Nature becoming human – The 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Neruda
In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pablo Neruda describes his escape from the Chilean government of Jorge Videla across the Andes to Argentina. The arduous and dangerous trek through this primeval world becomes a parable of humanity’s path through its own history and present, a world […]
The continued dangers of standing up to abusers
The exposé of Russell Brand this month by the Channel 4 documentary “Dispatches,” and the on-line vitriol that followed, was a stark reminder of the continued dangers of standing up to abusers in a post-MeToo society. A number of women and former colleagues were interviewed on their experiences with the […]
Class solidarity between cultures
The far right has been pushing the belief that Ireland has an immigration issue, that immigrants are replacing the Irish. While this isn’t true, Ireland has a problem with immigrants—and that is, how they are treated. The highest non-Irish population is Polish; and the largest non-English language spoken is also […]
A lumpenproletariat?
What is the nature of those elements now aligned to the anti-immigrant, anti-trans, “nationalistic” and conspiratorial movements seen in Ireland recently? Do such movements mobilise from within particular and consistent segments of the class structure? Are such mobilisations evidence of a risk of far-right elements moving towards mass influence? What […]